In tobacco industry, buffering reservoirs are used, which are positioned in production lines between machines, whose output may change in time, or which may be temporarily deactivated, for example cigarette machines, machines for producing filtering rods, packaging machines. Such reservoirs may be described as adjustable-capacity multilevel transporting and storing devices used for transporting between the machines and temporarily storing rod-like elements, such as acetate filtering rods, multi-segment filtering rods comprising loose material or other fillers, or complete cigarettes. Such reservoirs are typically located between the machines for producing the rod-like elements and the machines for packing them into packages or containers. A buffering machine of such type is described in a European patent EP2219480. The machine comprises circular support elements of the same diameter, arranged coaxially in a stack one above another, on which there are located circular conveyors for transporting rod-like elements arranged in a plurality of layers transversal to their direction of transport. The conveyor of such reservoir may have a form of an endless chain or an endless belt and may comprise its own driver unit.
The produced rod-like elements often comprise loose filtering material, such as charcoal granulate, which falls from the products onto the conveyor during the transportation. When cigarettes are transported, tobacco may fall from the their tips onto the transporting conveyor. The fallen loose material located on the conveyor may significantly influence the cleanness and quality of the transported rod-like elements.
Moreover, filling and emptying the reservoir with elements coming from different production batches, may increase the risk of leaving a single article on the conveyor and mixing it with other elements produced in the following batch of elements entering the reservoir.
A typical practice for cleaning the conveyors in machines in the tobacco industry is to use a compressed air gun by an operator. Such a method is applicable only when the operator has a sufficient access to the conveyor.
There are known devices for cleaning conveyors transporting rod-like elements in the tobacco industry. A European patent EP1661634 discloses a device for cleaning a conveyor configured to receive rod-like tobacco industry products. A disadvantage of this device is related to large dimensions of a cleaning chamber, through which the cleaned conveyor passes.
There is a need to provide a cleaning system to ensure cleanness of the conveyor and cleanness of the transported elements, and to eliminate the risk of mixing of the elements coming from different production batches.